Game 26: Saint Louis University, Wednesday, February 17th, 7 PM, NO TV

[stimes]

Wow, big three by Murrell, that took a lot of heart after a air ball.

 

[GMU_DCU]

Well at least they made a game out of it. Should have showed the same effort in the first half that they did in the second and it wouldn't have been close.

 

[Walter]

oh well

 

[patriot2000]

This f**king team. Beats Davidson but loses to SLU on the same night Fordham and LaSalle win

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[GMU_DCU]

Well the Play-in game against St. Louis should be an exciting game at least.

 

[JimP]

Ugh. Terrible start doomed the team. Quite a low after the high of Saturday. Looks like Mason will be playing on the first day of tourney. Only a game up on La Salle after their upset win tonight.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

Not too down after this one. Earleir this season we would've folded completely. We figured out how to stage a comeback. If we had Moore, we win easily.

Anyone, Anywhere have any REAL idea on a timeline on Moore's return? You can't really be "doubtful" for 5 straight games. Doubtful means he is a game or two away from playing, we're going into a 6th straight game with him listed as Doubtful?

 

[liem.le.3388]

Why is our defense so dependent on the other team missing wide open shots.

 

[stimes]

Bishop killed our guards today, that was the difference. If Moore played today, I think we would have got that win. We just had no one to contain Bishop today. Heart breaking lost today!

 

[ephoops]

Team certainly missed Moore. The could have used his defense on Bishop. (BTW, Bishop is making a late push for ROY in the A-10).

Very difficult to win when your starters shoot a combined 4-21 on 3-pt shots. The fact that they were able to get the game to OT with such poor 3-pt shooting is amazing.

The front line again carried the team. I would have loved to see DP have four years coaching both Shevon and Jalen. Their respective improvement throughout the season has been significant. DP does not get enough credit for his ability to develop big men. He did it at Williams and Bucknell, and he is doing it this year as well.

 

[stimes]

Team certainly missed Moore. The could have used his defense on Bishop. (BTW, Bishop is making a late push for ROY in the A-10).

Very difficult to win when your starters shoot a combined 4-21 on 3-pt shots. The fact that they were able to get the game to OT with such poor 3-pt shooting is amazing.

The front line again carried the team. I would have loved to see DP have four years coaching both Shevon and Jalen. Their respective improvement throughout the season has been significant. DP does not get enough credit for his ability to develop big men. He did it at Williams and Bucknell, and he is doing it this year as well.

First, let me just state that last year Shevon was a much better player. He was a beast last year for us. This year hes playing with no confidence, and no desire. This guy ran the court like a deer last year, and dunked on anyone in his way. DP had nothing to do with thompsons development, if anything he held this kid back from being the player he could have been.

 

[GMUgemini]

First, let me just state that last year Shevon was a much better player. He was a beast last year for us. This year hes playing with no confidence, and no desire. This guy ran the court like a deer last year, and dunked on anyone in his way. DP had nothing to do with thompsons development, if anything he held this kid back from being the player he could have been.

I think that's a little unfair.

 

[MasonFanatic]

So many empty possessions in overtime... an overtime we had no business playing. Ugh.

 

[stimes]

I think that's a little unfair.

Maybe, but true!!!! Early in the year every time Thompson made a mistake he yanked him out of the game. That is definitely not a confidence builder. If he would have let Thompson play through his mistakes earlier, I think we would have seen a different player this year!!!

 

[Petey Buckets]

Oh man what a game. Sad they couldn't pull it out, but heartened to see them come back from down 17 or 19 or whatever and bring it to overtime. A few thoughts:

St Louis murdered us with the pick 'n pop all night. Shevon and Otis are terrible at defending this - Shevon's feet are too slow to get out and hedge on the guard, and Otis still has a lot to learn about when to fight over/under/through the screen. When Otis went under the screen, the shooters were wide open. When he tried to fight over and through, he got out of position and the guard had an easy lane to the basket. Jalen and Marquise are much better at defending this. Jalen's quick enough to hedge and recover, and Marquise is much better about reading screens and adjusting.

St Louis also ran a lot of double-screen action for Yacoubou and Crawford. It led to a lot of switching and recovering from our young defenders, and ultimately a lot of defensive miscommunication and open shots for them. I don't know if that's how they always play, but if it's not they did a pretty good job of scheming to take advantage of our weaknesses.

Otis had three defenders within three feet of him when Shevon was setting screens at the top of the key. I wish there were someplace I could see a replay of the game and screenshot some of these sets, because it was comically bad. We have no shooters the other team needs to be afraid of and Shevon's defender can cheat hard since Shevon can't roll quickly. There's really no way for us to make the other team pay for defending like that when they've walled off Otis's ability to drive. However, this looked totally different when Jalen was in. Jalen is very good at rolling hard to the basket, which opens things up for Otis, sucks in help defenders, and gets the ball moving in a way that generates looks. For as much as we played like a** tonight, I believe we win this game if Jalen doesn't foul out.

Good on Kameron for hitting some huge shots in the second half during the comeback. He's a solid defender who could become a real asset if those threes start falling. He's a total non-threat to drive to the basket, but under better circumstances he won't have to be to have value.

We were 6-26 from three. I've been saying all year that the outlook on this team is much different if we hit threes at even an average rate. It's really tough to win games with as little talent as we have when the 3-ball isn't falling. I have to think that changes next year with all our freshmen more experienced and shooters like Newman coming in.

 

[Washingtonian]

Shevon wasn't double teamed much all night, which I found interesting. Jalen matched what he did against Davidson.

 

[JimP]

First, let me just state that last year Shevon was a much better player. He was a beast last year for us. This year hes playing with no confidence, and no desire. This guy ran the court like a deer last year, and dunked on anyone in his way. DP had nothing to do with thompsons development, if anything he held this kid back from being the player he could have been.

Thompson just played better in Hewitt's loosey goosey take it one on one system. I don't blame Paulsen - with a team w/ less experience GMU already has more D-I wins than last year. Last year, the team had 4 A-10 wins. I think we'll get to 5 with 5 more regular season and the A-10 post season to play. Still, tough one to swallow tonight.

In terms of rebounding and presence down low, Thompson's loss is big next year. I still think GMU increases their win total though - it's a guard's league and we'll have many more options at guard next year.

 

[psyclone]

Post-game extra is online:
http://www.gomason.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=25200&SPID=80389&SPSID=606519&DB_OEM_ID=25200

 

[TweederGMU]

Otis.... you gotta get off a shot at the end. Just HAVE to.

 

[TweederGMU]

Not too down after this one. Earleir this season we would've folded completely. We figured out how to stage a comeback. If we had Moore, we win easily.

Anyone, Anywhere have any REAL idea on a timeline on Moore's return? You can't really be "doubtful" for 5 straight games. Doubtful means he is a game or two away from playing, we're going into a 6th straight game with him listed as Doubtful?

Like I originally stated..... 3-4 weeks